


Location Is Everything

by JustAnotherUnderstudy



Series: This Should Totally Be A Thing [52]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Boredom, COVID-19, Coronavirus, Established Relationship, F/M, M | Olivia Mansfield Lives, Older Woman/Younger Man, seclusion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:13:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23126062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAnotherUnderstudy/pseuds/JustAnotherUnderstudy
Summary: James tries to protect Olivia but she's not too keen on it.
Relationships: James Bond/M, James Bond/M | Olivia Mansfield
Series: This Should Totally Be A Thing [52]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/579049
Comments: 8
Kudos: 14





	Location Is Everything

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, yay. It's Spring break and EVERYTHING I wanted to do is closed. So, I guess I'll be spending the week cleaning and reading and writing. Now, under normal circumstances, I'd not complain. But I'm being forced into it so it's not nearly as fun as it would be if I chose it myself. Of course, if my location was a bit more--hospitable, maybe I'd feel differently about it. :)
> 
> This story takes place right now. It ignores the existence of Spectre and NTTD. ("F*ck Spectre" will be the title of my autobiography.) M obviously lives. :)

"Man was born for society. However little He may be attached to the World, He never can wholly forget it, or bear to be wholly forgotten by it." ~~Matthew Gregory Lewis, _The Monk_

* * *

Olivia turned off the television and sighed loudly.

James hardly spared her a glance. She'd been doing that three times a day for two days. Ever since he'd told her in no uncertain terms were either of them to leave the house for anything, she had been complaining.

"I'm bored," she said.

"Yes, I've heard," he mumbled still reading his online newspaper.

He'd cancelled the delivery and they were receiving groceries only via a special secure delivery arranged by M.

"Did you ever consider I might want to catch the damned virus so I could finally die?"

This he ignored as well. She'd been telling him that since the second day. Since he knew her will to live was rather extraordinary, he regarded her words as an idle threat.

She stood and walked over to the window to stare into the street.

"All those people going everywhere they want," she sighed dramatically.

Finally, she walked over to the book shelf and pulled down _Faust_. She mumbled something about being able to relate the disillusioned doctor and wandered into the solarium to read.

If James was honest with her he'd tell her he felt the same, but she'd use that against him and he couldn't risk it. While she was mostly healthy, she was older now and after a scare two years earlier with a simple cold that turned into pneumonia and resulted in three days in hospital, James would take no chances.

Deciding to keep her company, James picked up the book he was reading, _Gravity's Rainbow*_ , and followed after her.

"You could use that book as a brick in a building," she commented as he sat next to her.

"Yes," he said. "But it's worth the bragging rights, wouldn't you say?"

"I suppose," she said. "I've never bragged about it though."

"No," he said. "But you don't brag about much."

He settled flat on the sofa so that his head rested on Olivia's thigh and his feet dangled over the arm at the other end.

"It's never been my thing," she said. "Actions speak for themselves, why bother going on about it?"

James hummed.

"It would be nice if you'd brag about having such a handsome young "toy-boy,"" he said.

Olivia only replied with a slap to his arm.

James smiled up at her and she shook her head and smiled back. Then she returned to her book and rested her hand on his chest.

It was another hour before either of them spoke again, each trying to lose time by shutting out the doldrums of their voluntary isolation. James only moved when his legs started to tingle and fall asleep.

"Does it bother you that no one knows about us?" she asked.

"What?" James asked as he pulled his mind out of his story. "Why would it bother me?"

"Well, you wanted me to brag about it," she said. "As if I'd captured you like some sort of animal."

"Oh, I was just joking," he said.

She gave him a skeptical look.

"You never joke," she said. "You haven't a funny bone in your body."

"That's rich," he mumbled.

"There's nothing wrong with not being funny," she said. "It's just that you aren't and now you are claiming it was all a joke."

James sat up and looked at her.

"Yes," he sighed. "It bugs the hell out of me that no one knows.

"I hate that we can't hold hands in public," he admitted. "I hate that I can't even look at you the way a lover would when we are having dinner out."

Olivia seemed disquieted by this information.

"But I know that's how it has to be," he said. "So, if that's what it takes to be with you, that's what I'll do."

"I'm sorry, James," she said. "I just don't want people thinking that I'm using you."

James knew this. They'd had this conversation the first time he'd kissed her, which had been in public. But that had been nearly a decade earlier and he supposed it was time he reassured her again.

"I know," he said. "People are idiots."

He reached over to stroke her cheek.

"I was really joking," he said. "But if you feel compelled to brag, you could call M right now."

She smiled a little at that.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm just oversensitive right now."

"I know," he replied. "I think I'm beginning to feel it too."

He moved next to her and put his arm around her.

"When it stops raining we can get out into the garden," he said. "Just as long as we don't interact with anyone, it should be fine."

"This is awful," she said. "I don't know if I can last until it passes through."

She pulled away from him and left the room. James leaned back on the sofa suddenly feeling very defeated. It had been two weeks since he'd concocted this current scheme to keep her safe. But he had to admit, this was going to drive them both insane.

He finally headed into the kitchen to prepare something for dinner.

"Tell Tanner, next time you talk with him, that we need a larger order of orange juice," he heard Olivia call from the other room. "At lest two bottles with as quickly as we go through it."

"Right," he replied.

He walked to the refrigerator to add that to his list, then he froze. He turned and looked through the kitchen door to the dining table where he'd left his phone earlier.

"Tanner," he mumbled.

* * *

Three days later.

"This is very impressive, Bond," Olivia said.

She was sitting on the deck of a small beach house in a secluded part of the Bahamas. It was a safe house owned by SIS.

"You know it's Tanner who got it together for us," James replied from his lounge chair next to her.

"Yes," she said. "That's why I said _this_ is impressive, not _you_ are impressive."

He turned and gaped at her, but she only smirked at him.

As she leaned back in her chair, she sighed a contended sigh and picked up her Dickinson anthology to continue to read.

James returned to his book. He'd finally made it to Chapter 35 of _Gravity's Rainbow_ , but he was no closer to figuring it out. He'd refrained from ask Olivia to explain it to him. She'd probably understood it on her first read through. Even in her reading he suspected she was much better at seeing the big picture than he was.

"Odd how the location makes this all much more bearable," she commented as she turned a page.

James agreed. If they had to be cut off from the world, this was certainly the place for it.

**Author's Note:**

> *"Gravity's Rainbow" is the book Daniel Craig's character, Benoit Blanc, mentions in "Knives Out." He said that no one's ever read it and I immediately thought, in the theater, challenge accepted, bitch. ;)


End file.
